County Sued in Inmate’s Suicide Attempt

The Sheriff’s Department and San Diego County are responsible for a woman inmate’s suicide attempt because they failed to provide adequate psychiatric treatment and supervision, her attorney charged Tuesday.

The family of Keon Ja Lee, 38, is seeking $25 million in damages for injuries she suffered in the suicide attempt at the Las Colinas women’s jail. Opening statements in the civil suit began Tuesday in Superior Court.

Deputy County Counsel Tom Sharkey, who is defending former Sheriff John Duffy and several department employees named in the suit, said the county’s program for treating mentally ill prisoners is “perfectly permissible, legal and adequate” and that the department acted properly by confining Lee at Las Colinas.

“This case is ultimately about a person being responsible for their actions,” Sharkey said in an opening statement that will be completed today.

Lee was held in Las Colinas after her arrest Jan. 6, 1989, for allegedly stabbing her 11-year-old son with a kitchen knife.

Her attorney, Tom Adler, said he will present evidence showing that Lee was originally rejected from Las Colinas by a nurse who determined that she needed psychiatric treatment. Lee was taken to Community Mental Health Center at UC San Diego Medical Center, and a psychiatrist for the county found her to be “definitely suicidal,” Adler said.

The county acted against a doctor’s recommendation to place Lee under guard at the mental health hospital, and instead returned her to Las Colinas, Adler contended. Lee was initially placed in an empty padded room, then transferred to a normal cell and kept under a “suicide watch,” the attorney said.

The “suicide watch,” in which attendants frequently rouse inmates to determine if they are alive, only served to aggravate Lee’s mental condition, Adler told Judge Michael I. Greer.

The suit also alleges that the county violated Lee’s civil rights by not providing her the same psychiatric treatment available in the County Jail for men downtown. Adler accused Duffy’s administration of obstructing plans to open a psychiatric unit at Las Colinas. County mental health officials have said the unit was delayed by budget constraints but will open soon.

Sharkey said the county has not discriminated against female inmates. Inmates at the three county men’s jails aside from the downtown facility are also subject to referral programs with Community Mental Health Center.

Lee’s husband, Seung Kyu Lee, filed the complaint on behalf of his wife, who is bedridden at an extended-care hospital.

On Jan. 30, 1989, Lee fashioned a noose and rope from two nightgowns and hanged from the top of her metal bunk bed for about 15 minutes before she was discovered unconscious by jail attendants. She suffered severe brain damage.

About three months after the suicide attempt, prosecutors dismissed child abuse and attempted murder charges because Lee was unable to stand trial.

Adler said Lee, a former bookkeeper in her native South Korea, immigrated to the United States in 1982 and worked with her husband in a restaurant. In 1985, the Lees had saved enough money to buy their own restaurant. Shortly after, they became naturalized citizens. Then, Adler said, Keon Ja Lee’s health began to deteriorate.

She began suffering chronic headaches, sleeplessness and depression. Her husband took her to several doctors, acupuncturists and herb pharmacists, who were unable to diagnose her illness but prescribed various medicines including the anti-depressant Atavan. In November, 1988, Lee overdosed on the drug in an attempt to take her life, Adler said.

From that time on, Lee was watched constantly by relatives. She spoke incessantly about dying and “wanting the family to all die together,” Adler said. At times, Lee asked her husband to kill her, Adler said.